MyCardBlog

Microsoft just increased their cash back rate today. For most merchants, the cash back has been doubled and you can even earn up to 70% cash back! At the same time, Microsoft live search is still offering 25% cash back for shopping at eBay through live search (up to 35% cash back from eBay via Microsoft live search cash back). With the new promotion, the cash back offered by live search is much higher compared to other popular cash back websites like Chase Rewards Plus, ShopDiscover, Fatwallet, and Ebates.

The promotion is named the “Back-to-School Deal Days”. If you want to save money by shopping online, this is the right time to pull the trigger! Normally, the back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. And Microsoft is still competing with Yahoo for the second place in the search engine market.

According to Microsoft, the reason why they double the cash back rate is recent a survey from Deloitte found that during this back-to-school shopping season, 71 percent of households plan on spending less on back-to-school items than they have in previous years. With consumers feeling financial strain from higher gas and food prices, Live Search cashback is offering back-to-school shoppers extra savings to stretch their dollars further. When you are using the search engine at Live.com, actually, Microsoft can earn a huge amount of money by displaying sponsored advertisements.

Following are some examples of “huge cash back”

• 36% cash back from FootLocker.com
• 38% cash back from ShoeMall.com
• 70% cash back from Magazines.com
• 20% cash back from FinishLine.com
• 10-20% cash back from Lenovo.com
• 10% cash back from HP.com
• 16% cash back from A&E TV

Back-to-school savings start today and will run for a limited time during the month of August.

You can earn cash back every time you use Live Search cashback. For every qualifying purchase, you will be sent an e-mail message confirming the Live Search cashback savings. If you place your order through live search but never received the e-mail confirmation, you can contact Microsoft. The balance show up in your account can be requested via PayPal, check or direct deposit into a bank account.

Another point I want to mention here is: some of the merchants are using the links from JellyFish.com which is another famous social shopping website acquired by Microsoft in last October.

Take the chance to get extra savings with Live Search Cash Back now! Of course, don’t forget to pick up a great cash back credit card to save even more!

I believe the 35% cash back from eBay via Microsoft live search cashback is the most popular topic on the internet yesterday. I think it’s necessary to write up a post about Microsoft live search cashback program and introduce how to get 35% cash back from eBay via live search cash back.

What’s Live Search Cashback?

Live Search cashback is a new cashback program that combines the power of Live Search with a comparison-shopping engine to bring consumers some of the best deals on the Web (to maximum the cashback rewards for online shopping consumers). The program rewards consumers with a cash back rebate for a purchase, and gives merchants/advertisers the opportunity to sell on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis. The motivation behind Microsoft to launch this program is to beat Google in the search engine business.

If you just use Google’s product search feature, you can get a list of stores that sell the product you want but without any information about tax, fees, and cashback for that transaction. However, Microsoft’s Live Search offers: 1). It tells you which stores carry the product and each store’s price, plus any additional charges (shipping cost and taxes). 2). It will offer certain amount of cashback for if you use the link provided by Live Search. (Of course, you have to register an account there.) It even will automatically determine which store offers the best price after cashback. It saves you a lot of time. Another feature Live Search can develop in the near future is to get store ratings together. Sometimes, lowest prices doesn’t mean best service.

In a word, Microsoft Live Search offer search engine and cashback together which make it very competitive for better online shopping experience. The cashback you can get even higher than some other cashback programs like Chase Rewards Plus, ShopDiscover Program or other famous rewards websites. Live Search Cashback is certainly worth checking out first every time you’re looking for something to buy online.

How to get 35% cashback from eBay?

1. Register an account at http://search.live.com/cashback.

2. Use live search to search the items you want to shop. (Usually you can try the items are known to generate 35% off links and redo the search process on ebay. You don’t have to search on the live.com again! That’s why this deal is damn hot!)

3. See whether you can get “You may get 35% off with PayPal if eligible.” from www.ebay.com. (examples will be shown below) If you can’t get it at the first attempt, you can try other words or you can try some accessories of that item. This is the most time consuming process. For example, I want to buy a pentax camera lens. If I use “pentax 50″, I can’t get any links for 35% cash back. However, if I try “pentax 100″, I will get a cashback link to www.ebay.com.

4. If you can get that link from your search results, click that link and try to find out the lowest price available at eBay and finish that transaction ASAP.

5. Wait for the cashback shows up in your account.

Some terms and conditions you should know:

1. You must successfully complete an eligible purchase on www.ebay.com using “Buy-It-Now” within 60 minutes of clicking an eBay link with Lice Search cashback logo. (this is a “Online Session”)

2. Cashback only applied to the first eligible item you commit to buy during an Online Session. No good for additional items.

3. PayPal payment is required!

4. Purchases of vehicles, gift cards, real estate or purchases made at www.express.ebay.com and www.half.ebay.com are not eligible to receive the cashback.

5. Maximum cashback for each Online Session is $250 and you can only get up to $750 totally. (Limit of 3 Online Sessions/transactions per account)

6. you can combine other coupons or other eBay promotions with Live Search cashback rewards.

Note: If you search for wii, you can only get 10% now. But if you use “wii cheap” you can still get 35% off link. If you search “PS3″ you can only get 10% off now, but if you use “PS3 cheap” you can still get 35% off link.

Update: Only 10% off right now. 35% off seems dead.You can only get 25% cashback right now.Simple search “25%” at live.com and you will get the link to get 25% cashback on ebay.com.

With gas prices nearing $4 per gallon, saving money on gas becomes a big concern in our daily life. Hereby I summarize some tips on how to save money on gas.

The top 1 tip is to find out a great gas-rebate credit card for you. Today most of gas-rebate credit cards offer 5% or even more cash back on gasoline purchase. For example, Discover Open Road CardSimplyCash Card offer 5% cash back on gas and auto maintenance purchases; offers 5% cash back on gas, wireless and office supplies purchases; BP visa card offers up to 10% cash back at BP pumps. How to get a great gas-rebate card for you really depends on your credit habit and driving habit. You can check out “Best Gas Card Roundup” and “5 Top Rated Gas Rebate Cards” to get more information.

Find the cheapest gas near you. You can always visit www.gasnearu.com and www.gasbuddy.com to find out which gas station offers the cheapest gas. I’m sure you can save a lot in this way.

Use the recommended gas for your car. Some people may think that higher grade gas might generate better MPG and can save them decent amount of money. Actually, there is no reason to fuel your tank with higher grade gas than what is indicated in the owner’s manual.

Replace a dirty air filter frequently. This is a well-known trick to increase your MPG. According to the Federal Trade Commission, you can always increase your MPG up to 10% by using a new air filter.

Watch out your tires! You should always inflate your tires at a proper psi. And change the tire pressures according to weather changes. Another trick is to make sure your tires are well balanced and rotated.

Use the proper motor oil. I believe that choosing a proper grade of motor oil will help you save gas on the road.

Driving smartly on the road. You should always know that a good driving habit can save you tons of gas in your life! In order to save gas on the road, you should avoid jackrabbit start, properly control your car’s speed, use cruise control on the highway and remove unnecessary weight from your car.

Buy a gas-efficient car. Yes, overall, I think this is the best way to save money on gas only if you need a card. There are many hybrid cars on the market to choose from.

Thousands of victims buried or missing after China’s worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone (12,000 is the latest figure released by Chinese government on May 13, 2008.). According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday’s massive, 7.9-magnitude quake. However, we would expect the numbers of casualties to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

The Red Cross Society of China is calling for donations for victims of the Sichuan earthquake. As the transportation in the disaster hitting area is not smooth, Red Cross Society of China is mainly collecting monetary donations right now. For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province. The Red Cross Society of China has published a public hotline and bank account information to receive worldwide donations.

Account Name: Red Cross Society of China

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610)6513999

You can also donate online at the Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn.

More pictures about this earthquake can be found at usatoday.com.

Tax-free period is coming soon! Yep, it’s a wonderful opportunity that we can take advantage of to save a huge amount of money. I think it would be helpful if I can summarize all the tax sales across the nation. Then I “google” on the internet about all the states and collect the information on any sales tax holidays they are having. This year many states have changed their sales tax holiday plans. You should double check the sales tax holiday event in your state before you place the orders.

Below is a comprehensive list that I could manage and I hope you find it useful. Please note that not all states have a sales tax holiday. And if you are a resident at Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon, you’re already tax-free!

Alabama

Time: August 1~3, 2008

clothing – less than $100 per item

computers, software, and computer supplies – less than $750

school supplies – less than $50 per item

books – less than $30 per item

Louisiana

Time: May 24~25, 2008

hurricane preparedness sale exempting purchases up to $1,500 for emergency items

Connecticut

Time: August 17~23, 2008

clothing and footwear – less than $300

Iowa

Time: August 1~2, 2008

clothing and footwear – less than $100 per item

Tennessee

Time: April 25~27, 2008

Clothing – less than $100 per item
school and art supplies - less than $100 per item
computers - $1,500

Texas

Time: August 15~17, 2008

clothing and footwear – less than $100 per item

backpacks – less than $100

Energy Star Sales Tax Holiday May 24 – 26, 2008

Eligible tax-free items can be found here.

Virginia

Time 1: May 25~27, 2008

designated hurricane preparedness equipment priced – less than $60 per item

portable generators priced – less than $1,000 per item

Time 2: August 1~3, 2008

Back-to-School sales tax holiday on school supplies – less than $20 per item

clothing and footwear – less than $100 per item

Time 3: October 10~13, 2008

Energy Star Qualified products including appliances purchased for noncommercial home or personal use – less than $2,500 each

Missouri

Time: August 1~2, 2008

clothing – less than $100 each

school supplies – less than $50 each

computer and equipment – less than $3500

Georgia

Time: July 31 – August 3, 2008

clothing – less than $100 per item

computer and equipment – less than $1500

school supplies – less than $20 per item

energy efficient appliances – $1500 or less

North Carolina

Time: August 1~3, 2008

clothing – less than $100 per item

school instructional materials – less than $300 per item

sports equipment – less than $50 per item

computers, software, computer supplies – less than $250 per item

Washington D.C.

Time: No official announcement yet. (a week in August and November)

clothing, accessories and shoes – less than $100

school supplies – less than $100

Oklahoma

Time: No announcement yet. (a weekend in August)

clothing and footwear – less than $100 per item

New Mexico

Time: No announcement yet. (first weekend in August)

clothing and footwear – less than $100 each

school supplies – less than $15 each

computers – less than $1000

Massachusetts

Time: usually the second weekend in August

anything with a sale price less than $2,500 (some exceptions)

Florida

Time: August 2~8, 2008

clothing, shoes and backpacks – less than $50 per item

school supplies – less than $10 per item

Do you have any problems about handling and saving your money? Do you need some tips on how to save and smartly spend your money? Do you want to find a one-stop site that can give you all the information about money? If your answer is yes to any one of the above questions, you’d better check out Money.co.uk. Money.co.uk surely is a website that you can find tons of high quality articles and a variety of information about money related matters.

Money.co.uk is a brand new financial portal with resources, materials, and information on how to save money, spend money and make money. They offer the latest money saving tips, tricks, deals and promotions. Money.co.uk also contains a lot of useful information about credit cards, loans, mortgages, insurance, savings, shares, and utilities. You can get everything you need there about your personal finance and daily life. When you get there, you will find out that every section of Money.co.uk is talking about different aspects of money. Another feature makes me fall in love with this site is you can get tremendous information-news, advices, comparisons, and other useful tips-from every section of this site. For example, at the credit cards section, you can compare top UK credit cards along with many credit cards related news, tips, and articles. If you are new to credit cards, you can refer to “credit cards explained” section about basics of credit cards. They also provide links to apply for those tops UK credit cards. Once you have made the decision on which card to pick up, you can easily apply for that card by click the “Apply” button.

Money.co.uk also provide insurance like car insurance, van insurance, home insurance, pet insurance, travel insurance, motorbike insurance and many others. The insurance market is really competitive nowadays. If you don’t know which one to choose from, you can use their “compare insurance” service to get free quote from many insurance companies and find out the top insurance offer. Of course, you can always get latest news and tips about all kinds of insurance there.

Money.co.uk also provides free RSS subscription service to their visitors. By signing up RSS feed, you can get the latest information about money stuffs from Money.co.uk. They also offer free money savings tips newsletter. The newsletters will be delivered to your email whenever there is some useful information to pass on. You can also get money saving e-book from Money.co.uk. This is really an amazing site!

Whenever you want to get some information about money, you can always go to Money.co.uk. It’s a “one-stop” site about money.

I have several posts about getting some small money by taking some online surveys. (Actaully, some of them are not small!) The first post about making money by taking surveys is about SurveySavvy which is a professional survey company. I joined this survey company 3 months ago. Today I received the first payment—$11 from them. Although $11 is not too much, but I’m really glad that I can get a free buffet by answering some stupid questions online. Following is the check they sent to me today.

SurveySavvy is part of Luth Research LLC., a market research leader since 1977. Based in San Diego, Luth Research LLC has conducted countless interviews, focus groups and surveys for their clients. They have over 3 million members across 190 countries earning cash by participating in their online paid surveys.

If you search through the internet, you can find many positive reports about this survey company. Their payout is really impressive which is range from $2 to $30 for each survey based the length of the survey. They have millions of participants in their database. The questions is how can you get the survey chance to get more money? Based on my own experience, I can give out several tips:

1). During the sign up process, you’ d better say you involve in a computer or modern technology related industry. Usually people in this industry can get the most survey invitations.

2). Put your position as a manager or business owner. Because you can make the decision!

3). Be careful about the screen questions. Before they offer you a survey, you have to answer some small questions about the official survey. If you can’t pass the screen questions, you can’t take the survey. Tip: they will tell you what the survey will be. Have that in mind and try to say you are related to that survey. For example, the coming survey will be about iPod, then you’d better say you have an iPod or you are going to a new one.

4). Take every chance they send out to you. And there is no minimum balance requirement for you to take the money out of your account.

Take the chance to get some free buffets for you!!!

A summary of posts in this week:

$50 from Bank of America World MasterCard with World Points

WaMu Savings for Success

$5 from Sears and Ebates

$100 Bonus from TD Ameritrade

Want A Credit Card? — Get The Easiest Ones

The Four Credit Cards That Everyone Should Have